ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Although most journalists and media managers will deny that they are at all biased,
few of the communication messages that are daily spread by the mass
communication media, are neutral. Media people transfer their own political
orientation, also that of the organisation that they work for, to their reports by means
of their decisions of what news they will present and how they will present it.
From the recent past it has become clear that there is a link between the
government of the day and how the news is presented, as perceptions that have
been created of certain events, have changed over time. Journalists have certain
political convictions, but even if they try to be objective in spite of these, they are
often insensitive to the fact that they are used by propagandists, who themselves
have a thorough knowledge of the media. Sometimes journalists are knowingly and
willingly involved in such attempts, and sometimes against their will. More often they
are completely ignorant of the fact that they form part of a propaganda attempt,
because they do not realise that they are being manipulated. In order to distinguish
between "real" news and propaganda in the form of news, it is essential to have
insight into the nature and origin of propaganda, but especially into the techniques
that are commonly used.
Initially, the word "propaganda" had a positive meaning, but during the First World
War the word increasingly obtained a negative connotation. A century later, the word
itself had become almost obsolete, except in reference to the information attempts of
the opposition. "Own" campaigns are referred to in eufemistic terms such as "news
management" and "public diplomacy".
However, phenomena of propaganda did not disappear. In fact, with the progress
in technology since the end of the nineteenth century, the number of communication
channels available for the transfer of messages have multiplied. This created new
means of spreading propaganda, especially since the invention of the transistor and
later of television. With the changes in and improvements of mass communication
media, the nature and extent of propaganda techniques also changed significantly.
The techniques became more sophisticated and new methods of manipulation are
continuously thought up, so much so that there are currently almost no limit to the
ways in which propaganda messages are conveyed. When the uses of these techniques, as they are commonly found in media reports, are studied, it is possible
to identify six broad catagories of propaganda.
The first category is that where the nature of the contents is obvious, in other
words, where no further information is required about an issue or a person in order to
recognise the technique as propaganda. The second category represents pieces of
propaganda where further information is required in order to recognise the use of the
technique, like when somebody tells a lie. Thirdly, there are techniques that can only
be recognised after a variety of propaganda pieces have been studied and the
relation between the contents have been studied, such as when politicians play for
time. The fourth technique is repetition. The fifth category of techniques is based on
the nature of the arguments used by the propagandist, whether these are rational or
non-rational. The last category is based on the intention of the propagandist, for
example whether he wants to create fear or drive a wedge between groups.
Knowledge of these different techniques provide a basis according to which
journalists and media managers will be able to judge news events in order to
determine the propagandistic intention thereof.